On Camera

[Ronin]

For anyone looking to make a movie, or have made a movie please read.

I began looking for lightsabers when I tried to do a test film with my little brother and tried after effect-ing the sabers, it took too long with little result and high frustration, so I went to youtube in search of lightsabers to buy and kept finding Ultrasabers, the rest is prophecy- I mean, history.

Anyways here's my question, is there a certain mode or setting on digital cameras that allows for a sweeping/trailing motion? I know that on a digital single shot camera you can set the shutter speed lower to capture light trails, but is that possible for a camera taking film? I'll probably be using a canon 5D v.II.

[Ultra]

Your question isn't very clear, which is probably why you haven't gotten an answer.  You start talking about movies, then you ask if you can get light trails in a camerea that takes film.  Please clarify what you are asking here.

[Ronin]

Yeah, sorry for any misunderstanding. Basically what I'm asking is if there are any mode settings (i.e. night, outdoors, automatic...) on a camera to better show the color of the saber or intensify it's white core? Thus making it seem more realistic.

The trailing question was a reference to digital pictures (like my avatar), I was wondering if a similar effect could be produced from a movie camera.

[Kaiden Shardsbane]

I don't think so, but I'm not a photographer.  And as to the trailing, if you're twirling the blade fast (in the dark, of course) it'll still have the same effect.  If you watch someone who knows what they're doing, there are even motion trails in real life.  So even if there aren't trails on the single frames of a movie, it 'should' have the same appearance when viewed.

[Ultra]

Manually reduce shutter speed on any still-frame camera to get trails.  What "mode" that is depends on the camera, but generally speaking, outdoor mode has the fastest shutter speed, while Dark or Night has the slowest.  There are no settings on a video recorder to make the kind of trails you get with stills without also making everything else in motion equally blurry.  You'll need After Effects or a similar application to pull that off.

[Ronin]

I don't think so, but I'm not a photographer.  And as to the trailing, if you're twirling the blade fast (in the dark, of course) it'll still have the same effect.  If you watch someone who knows what they're doing, there are even motion trails in real life.  So even if there aren't trails on the single frames of a movie, it 'should' have the same appearance when viewed.

Lol, I like to think 3 years in Haidong Gumdo allows me to say I know what I'm doing, but I mean a trail of the solid white core, not the color itself (which is what happens).

Thanks Ultra, I'm gonna go ahead and test each setting to find a compromise, I'll post the best results, possibly with pics or vids.